Roy's Boys
The March to March begins
Both expectations and talent high for Kansas
Bv Matt Irwin
By Matt Hwin
Kansan sportswriter
It was a sad day in March.
On the 24th day of the third month of the year, the members of the Kansas men's basketball team watched their life-long dreams get pummeled.
After a season-long march from Allen Field House on Oct. 15 to Kemper Arena in Kansas City, Mo., on March 24, 1995, a 67-58 loss to Virginia in the NCAA Midwest Regional Semifinals ended the careers of some Jayhawks. The battle also left other casualties.
Sitting and staring at their shoes, the once powerful Jayhawks that survived looked so vulnerable. And then, the post-battle shelling began.
A barrage of questions:
What went wrong? Was it Virginia's strength?
Was it Kansas' shooting?
--months and a half-hour drive separate the two Kansas teams. One looked as if it lost everything it worked for and the other looked as if few teams could stay within 10 points of it.
Senior point guard Calvin Rayford darts along the baseline. He sends his defender to the other side of the paint while he darts back five feet for a baseline jumper—swish.
Back to the other end, inside to sophomore forward Raef LaFrentz — the patented left-handed turn-around — challenged by junior forward Scot Pollard. It rims out.
Pollard takes off. LaFrentz follows. Sophomore point guard C.B. McGrath catches an outlet pass and drives down the court. Spotting the streaking Pollard, he hits him in stride.
Pollard slams it.
The two teams looked so different, yet only six
Paul Kotz / KANSAN
With the speed of Kansas forward Raef LaFrentz as well as center Scot Pollard, the Jayhawks will play a more aggressive defense
This new team has the same dreams to go to the Final Four and win the national championship. These goals remain in the players' souls as a new march has begun.
"Somebody wrote up on the board,
'Everybody has the will to win, but only
Having patched up their wounds, the Jayhawks spent the off-season preparing for another long march to March.
national champions have the will to prepare to win in the off-season." Kansas senior forward Sean Pearson said. "We see that every day that we go into the locker room. That's what we're trying to do."
So, Roy Williams' team spent the offseason getting stronger.
"Coach emphasized that we all needed to get stronger," sophomore guard Billy Thomas said. "I really wanted to get stronger so I could take the ball to the basket more. A lot of guys at the three are kind of taller and were stronger than I was last year."
Almost all of the Jayhawks followed Williams advice and strengthened themselves in the offseason. And while they
worked on their games and bodies, the Virginia loss remained inside each Jayhawk.
"All the guys that are returning still have that taste in their mouth," Pollard said. "We should have gone further than we did."
Although many in the media have predicted that the Jayhawks will finish as national champions, no one may expect more from Kansas than its players.
"The expectation is there to get further than we did last year, but not only further — to get all the way and to the top," Pollard said. "Sometimes we talk about it and other times we don't, but we're always thinking about it."
With the absence of 7-foot-2 center Greg Ostertag, the Big Eight Conference career leader in blocked shots, the Jayhawks plan to return to an attacking defense, Williams said.
Junior point guard Jacque Vaughn started thinking about it soon after the loss. Vaughn began a new diet to decrease his body fat so that he could lead the daily march with more speed.
With Rayford back from a knee injury that kept him from playing last season, the agility of the returning frontcourt players and the addition of the high-flying freshman forward Paul Pierce, Kansas should make the march at a speed most teams won't be able to keep up with.
"It's going to be a lot of fun," Pearson said. "I think it's going to help us more to have a fast-breaking style because of the type of players that we have."
"If you have the ball and I'm playing against you, I'd like to steal the ball," Williams said. "And with this year's team, I
Paul Kotz/KANBAN
Kansas junior Jacque Vaughn is expected to lead the Jayhawks' march back to the NCAA tournament. The point guard, who is on a strict diet to reduce his body fat, leads a deep corps of Jayhawk guards.
think we've got a little bit better chance of doing that.
"Without Greg, we should be able to gamble more, and we should be able to get out and build our pressure out and hopefully get more baskets from our defense. With
Greg, we couldn't get out on the floor and pressure quite as much because his man was a lot of times the release."
Williams said there were advantages and disadvantages associated with the Jayhawks' return to a pressure defense.
18
The March to March
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